Spaziano Could Be Jailed Until 2028

The State Wants The Biker, Up For Parole Review, Behind Bars Until He's Almost 83.

January 8, 1999|By Jim Leusner of The Sentinel Staff

A state parole official is recommending that Outlaw motorcycle gang member Joseph ``Crazy Joe'' Spaziano remain in prison until Aug. 28, 2028 - two weeks before his 83rd birthday.

The biker, serving a life-plus-five-year term for a 1974 rape and assault, is up for a parole review only two months after pleading no contest to second-degree murder in a 1973 killing.

Spaziano, 53, was on Florida's death row when a witness recanted in 1995. The biker later won a new trial in the slaying of Orlando hospital clerk Laura Harberts.

Rather than face the death penalty again, Spaziano lawyers and Seminole County prosecutors worked out the plea deal with a 23-year-term, which amounted to the time he had served for the killing.

With his murder sentence completed, Spaziano is serving time for raping, stabbing and leaving for dead a 16-year-old Orange County woman in February 1974. The victim identified Spaziano as one of two men who raped her and slashed her eyes and throat.

In a Dec. 1 report on when Spaziano should be considered for release, parole examiner Johnnie Sheffield pushed back the date because of several aggravating factors. They included the killing of Harberts, the apparent brutal nature of that crime and circumstances of the 1974 Orange County rape and assault.

He also noted Spaziano's prior three-year prison sentence for assault, one-year jail term for violating probation on a petty larceny case and eight disciplinary reports in prison for offenses ranging from assault to making threats.

Essentially, the report recommends that Spaziano serve 53 years and four months for all of his crimes. The Florida Parole Commission can accept the proposed parole date, extend it or shorten it, depending on evidence presented.

Commission members were to consider Spaziano's parole status next week in Tallahassee. But because of a scheduling conflict with Spaziano's attorney, James Russ of Orlando, the hearing likely will be delayed until March, a commission spokesman said.

After that hearing, Spaziano will have another hearing in two to five years to re-evaluate his release date.

Russ, who usually does not comment to the media, did not return a phone call from a reporter.

Informed of the 2028 presumptive parole date, Orange-Osceola Chief Assistant State Attorney Bill Vose called it a ``fair'' date.

``Hopefully, whatever aggressive tendencies Mr. Spaziano still has left will be tempered by his age,'' Vose said Thursday.

At the time of the no-contest plea in November, Seminole-Brevard State Attorney Norm Wolfinger said he accepted the deal because his case against Spaziano was circumstantial, key witnesses had died and because he thought the conviction would help keep Spaziano behind bars for life on other Orange County charges.

Although Spaziano did not contest the murder charge, he filed an unusual statement saying he was making the plea in his ``best interest'' and still maintained that he was innocent.